Reverse the Polarity on the neutonian couplers!

[themaque]

What are the best/worst examples of insane technobabble in film or TV?

Star Trek is famous for it yet Star Wars is often given a pass. What is your limit? At what point does Fun become Cringe Worthy?

For myself, I will have to use "The Core" as being so insane it wraps around to brilliant. Everything that is happening is just SO mind boggling impossible you have to just forget about it and shoot the curl of implausibility.

It only really breaks down when you get the feeling it's TRYING to be serious for me.

[Ronnoc]

Pacific rim insisting on not using alloys in mech construction and the idea that the giant nuclear powered mech with holographic displays was analog always struck me as particularly egregious.

[Kitten Champion]

On the "that's not science!"-side, I'm pretty indifferent unless it's dramatically against the tone of the rest of the work to suddenly bring in the... magical - for want of a better word - into it. Interstellar being a recent example of where the sudden ending turn towards the fantastical with a heavy dose of saccharine simply didn't mesh with the rest of the work.

With regards to actual technobabble itself, I only really care when it's being used to resolve the conflict or to fill out the run-time. The former, obviously, because it's a dues ex machina - your heroes can do anything so long as you fill in the arbitrary dialogue requirements as a sacrifice to the script-writing gods - while the latter is simply wasting everybody's time reciting gibberish.

I don't mind, on the other hand, a nonsense explanation required to set up an interesting premise so long as its concise and the rest of the plot doesn't contradict it. For instance, Back to the Future, Doc Brown's explanations are entertaining, easy to grasp, and they're consistent throughout the trilogy.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Star Wars generally gets a pass on technobabble because the science is never gone into, at least in most canon works. It's just there and does what it needs to do to make pretty movies. It's not even trying to be science fiction so much as fantasy in space, really. It's partly a matter of genre expectation and mostly a matter of showing instead of telling. If you don't talk about the bad science, there's a lot less bad science to get mad about.

As for things that get really hilarious with using real science words to mean things that they don't mean, though, I nominate Star Trek Voyager. By two and a half seasons in they'd already shot an Event Horizon with phasers until it broke (and they could escape), run across a spacefaring species whose culture was defined by the scarcity of water (the most common element in the Universe bonded to the stuff they're all breathing), and had every single thing in the episode Threshold happen.

In a less famous example, the ending of Spider-Man 2 always ticked me off, wherein a self-sustaining fusion reaction akin to an artificial sun was halter by - "of course! Drown it!" - dropping it into New York Harbor half a mile from Manhattan. Does anyone have any idea how hot that thing had to have been? It would have vaporized the water so fast it would have just become more hydroden fuel, if anything.

[themaque]

Wish I could remember the original source.. but a quote somewhere went something like...

You are not allowed to use Star Trek Voyager as an example for anything, including breathing.

[Swaoeaeieu]

i am still mad about that episode of the new Flash show where captain Cold FROZE the lazer security lazers.... they became solid red rods he could break. Just awfull..

most entertaining technobabble? Tenth doctor. Never made sense, just talked to sound smart en distract :)

[GloatingSwine]

In a less famous example, the ending of Spider-Man 2 always ticked me off, wherein a self-sustaining fusion reaction akin to an artificial sun was halter by - "of course! Drown it!" - dropping it into New York Harbor half a mile from Manhattan. Does anyone have any idea how hot that thing had to have been? It would have vaporized the water so fast it would have just become more hydroden fuel, if anything.

Yeah, but you can technobabble it by saying that the sudden loss of surrounding pressure as it flash boils the water would have caused the fusion reaction to dissipate (pressure is one of the problems for self sustaining fusion, after all).


(Though I have no answer for why robot arms make you evil).

[Rogar Demonblud]

Not evil, just amoral. The controlling AI wants to fulfill its programmed function in the most efficient manner, and that's all. The problem is society runs on red tape and runaround.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Yeah, but you can technobabble it by saying that the sudden loss of surrounding pressure as it flash boils the water would have caused the fusion reaction to dissipate (pressure is one of the problems for self sustaining fusion, after all).


(Though I have no answer for why robot arms make you evil).

Yeah but it was running fine without the magcon field, and boiling water's still going to exert more pressure than the atmosphere right above it...eh.

And Octavius's arms were pretty interesting in the film, I though. Aside from the fact that whatever the hell they were made out of and the AI he used to control them should have already won him a Nobel Prize, the film was pretty consistent with the fact that their very simple intelligence that only cared about immediate self-preservation and performing the task they were designed for) was interfering with Otto's already fragile and grieving mind. It might not be terribly realistic, but by treating it as sort of an artificially-imposed paranoid schizophrenia, it was at least consistent with Movie Psychology.

[Lurkmoar]

Just about everything in The Core.

[Kato]

But... I liked voyager... Okay, I haven't seen it in years.

More on topic... I can take a lot of bad science when it makes the plot interesting. Not when it screws with the plot.

Doctor who uses A LOT of technobabble but mostly it is consistent or fun enough. But it also had... Kill the moon :smallangry:

And I hate things that pretend to be hard science and then are not... Like claiming love can transcend time and space...

[Nerd-o-rama]

Just about everything in The Core.

The Core was deliberate, at least. They brought in a consulting geophysicist to explain in detail why the premise of the movie was impossible, acknowledged it in the script, and then made up superscience to make it possible. "But what if we could?" is the code word for "we are making stuff up from this point on, just deal with it". It's wonderfully self-aware compared to, I don't know, Avatar.

[Lurkmoar]

The Core was deliberate, at least. They brought in a consulting geophysicist to explain in detail why the premise of the movie was impossible, acknowledged it in the script, and then made up superscience to make it possible. "But what if we could?" is the code word for "we are making stuff up from this point on, just deal with it". It's wonderfully self-aware compared to, I don't know, Avatar.

Supposedly there was supposed to be dinosaurs at one point...

[Eldan]

The core still has one of the best sentences of all time, though. "The neutrinos are mutating... and they are heating up the planet!"

[Rysto]

I love Girl Genius, but the plot of a good part of Volumes 9 and 10 (specifically the arc when Tarvek is sick) was driven mostly by (mad) technobabble.

[Admiral Squish]

One thing that bugged me about Avatar, beyond the 'hexapeds that move like quadrupeds' bit, is that every animal on the planet has six limbs... except for the inexplicably humanoid Na'vi. Like, even the monkey-analogues had six limbs. I mean, not technically techno-babble, just a nagging inconsistency.

Also, every mention of 'hacking' on network TV. I believe there's an iconic scene on NCIS where two characters join forces to out-hack a hacker by sharing a keyboard.

[gooddragon1]

Also, every mention of 'hacking' on network TV. I believe there's an iconic scene on NCIS where two characters join forces to out-hack a hacker by sharing a keyboard.

"Okay, now enhance that section of the image."

Enhance what? The 4 pixels? Into larger blocks of color?

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Okay, now enhance that section of the image."

Enhance what? The 4 pixels? Into larger blocks of color?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7d5HBNcUkQ

[gooddragon1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7d5HBNcUkQ

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/EnhancedImage.gif

From one of the sites that consume time in a fashion similar to a singularity.

[golentan]

I get angry whenever they have energy coming from nowhere that is not explicitly magic.

[Traab]

One thing that bugged me about Avatar, beyond the 'hexapeds that move like quadrupeds' bit, is that every animal on the planet has six limbs... except for the inexplicably humanoid Na'vi. Like, even the monkey-analogues had six limbs. I mean, not technically techno-babble, just a nagging inconsistency.

Also, every mention of 'hacking' on network TV. I believe there's an iconic scene on NCIS where two characters join forces to out-hack a hacker by sharing a keyboard.

Hey, if I can type 60 wpm, and you can type 60 wpm, then by us both working together we can type 120 wpm! Thats twice as fast and lets us type in hack.exe fast enough to out gurp the ram through the gui!

[Aedilred]

"I've got to put out an all-access email."
"Just get to the server."
"I'm trying. I can't find a Canadian server. I'm going to break into the mainframe... Dammit, they've got an access code! I'll try to re-route the encryptions."

Of course, that was played for laughs.

[Traab]

What I have learned from many years of media teaching is, everything can be fixed by reversing the polarity. Cascading electrical surge destroying the mainframe? Reverse the polarity. Hyperspace engines about to explode? reverse the polarity. Hacker taking control of your computer? reverse the polarity. Penguins living at the south pole? Reverse the polarity. Pole vaulter misses his mark? reverse the polarity.

[Ruslan]

It's an oldie, but I've been always vexed by the term Flux Capacitor.

[Thrudd]

The thread title immediately made me think of Ghostbusters. "Total protonic reversal"

"Tell him about the Twinkie..."

[Nerd-o-rama]

It's an oldie, but I've been always vexed by the term Flux Capacitor.

I am pretty sure that's a real, if obscure, electrical component that does exactly what you would expect. Presumably the name was jacked for a science fiction comedy because it sounds cool.

[Ruslan]

I am pretty sure that's a real, if obscure, electrical component that does exactly what you would expect. Presumably the name was jacked for a science fiction comedy because it sounds cool.
It's not a real electrical component. [In unrelated news, I actually am an electrical engineer]

[Reddish Mage]

What I have learned from many years of media teaching is, everything can be fixed by reversing the polarity. Cascading electrical surge destroying the mainframe? Reverse the polarity. Hyperspace engines about to explode? reverse the polarity. Hacker taking control of your computer? reverse the polarity. Penguins living at the south pole? Reverse the polarity. Pole vaulter misses his mark? reverse the polarity.

"Reverse the Polarity" has a long a storied history (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReversePolarity) (TV Tropes Alert)!

I recall everyone talking about the phrase in the context of the infamous Third Doctor "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!" Which I think is clearly intended to be funny nonsense regardless of whether you can actually reverse the polarity on a beam of neutrons.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Reverse the Polarity" has a long a storied history (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReversePolarity) (TV Tropes Alert)!

I recall everyone talking about the phrase in the context of the infamous Third Doctor "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!" Which I think is clearly intended to be funny nonsense regardless of whether you can actually reverse the polarity on a beam of neutrons.

You can't. The definition of a neutron is a subatomic particle that lacks a polarity/charge.

[Blackhawk748]

Personal favorite

Spatially inverted tetryons emanating from a tertiary subspace manifold

[Douglas]

In a less famous example, the ending of Spider-Man 2 always ticked me off, wherein a self-sustaining fusion reaction akin to an artificial sun was halter by - "of course! Drown it!" - dropping it into New York Harbor half a mile from Manhattan. Does anyone have any idea how hot that thing had to have been? It would have vaporized the water so fast it would have just become more hydroden fuel, if anything.
Do you have any idea how good water is as a cooling agent? It's pretty much the highest heat capacity commonly available substance known to humanity, and dumping a harbor's worth of it on something hot will do a LOT of cooling. Oh, there'd be a hell of a lot of flash-vaporized steam racing into the air in all directions, but that reactor would be losing heat at an extremely fast rate.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Maybe the problem there is the screenplay's confusion of "self-sustaining fusion reaction" (easy enough to derail since we can't even make one in a lab for more than a few seconds IRL) and "actual miniature sun" (assuming something with a similar energy output rather than a similar energy density, all the water in the world wouldn't do anything to it except explode).

However, now that I'm not 17, I can definitely see that the former is a more reasonable interpretation, and if nothing else, water would have had a better chance at drawing off the energy of the reaction than air, which wasn't doing crap. It still irked me that they essentially just equated a fusion reactor to a rapidly-expanding fire.

[DoctorFaust]

There's actually a song thats mostly about Star Trek's use of this, for anyone who's interested. Bad language alert. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwhAq3F8NCE)

[Reddish Mage]

You can't. The definition of a neutron is a subatomic particle that lacks a polarity/charge.

The internets tell me that "polarity" can also mean the direction of kinetic energy. Hey I don't know.

On the subject of make stuff up. I recall an "inside the scenes" where an executive and LeVar Burton spoke of his character's (Geordi) lines, that it often had something looking like "<tech>" inserted in places, and the actor was expected to make up technobabble on the spot.

Supposedly, LeVar Burton was very good at coming up with impressive sounding words on the spot.

[Traab]

The internets tell me that "polarity" can also mean the direction of kinetic energy. Hey I don't know.

On the subject of make stuff up. I recall an "inside the scenes" where an executive and LeVar Burton spoke of his character's (Geordi) lines, that it often had something looking like "<tech>" inserted in places, and the actor was expected to make up technobabble on the spot.

Supposedly, LeVar Burton was very good at coming up with impressive sounding words on the spot.

Thats why he is chief engineer. /nod The ability to bs and bluff your way out of a tight spot is intrinsic to the role of mechanic.

[Jan Mattys]

I always had a soft spot for the movie "Sunshine" by Danny Boyle.
Not only it is a very good movie in itself, but its physics are interestingly addressed and visually shown, up to the ending where
space, time and gravity make no sense anymore in the final fight

All while starting from a premise so laughable that it makes no sense whatsoever. "Let's gather all fissile material on Earth to re-ignite the Sun" shows no real grasp of the relative sizes and energies involved, and makes real physics go cry in a corner just like "the Core" campy tecnobabble.

[Lupus Major]

I always liked the way this was done on Stargate SG-1.

Carter (excitedly): <Wormhole!> <Polari...>
O'Neal: "Shut up, you are giving me a headache. Can you do it?"
Carter (dejectidly): Nods
O'Neal: "Then get to it."

They never let her talk long enough to say anything truly atrocious, so what she does say mostly makes sense.

The "covalence signal" they send in one episode of ST:NG, solving the plot, still almost makes me cry.

[Yora]

Aren't they walking around on the sun? At 30 times earth gravity.

And given how long a white dwarf or neutron star keeps glowing with no energy production, the temperature of the sun should be in the thousands of degrees for possibly millions of years.

[Pronounceable]

captain Cold FROZE the lazer security lazers
That was terribad.

What's even worse and takes the cake of all technobabble ever is Flash needing to cross Capt Cold and Heatwave's absolute cold and absolute hot shooting guns' streams to neutralize them both. Anyone who looks up what absolute hot actually is will see why this is the dumbest technobabble ever.

[themaque]

That was terribad.

What's even worse and takes the cake of all technobabble ever is Flash needing to cross Capt Cold and Heatwave's absolute cold and absolute hot shooting guns' streams to neutralize them both. Anyone who looks up what absolute hot actually is will see why this is the dumbest technobabble ever.

Have they mentioned it's "Absolute Hot" on the show? I don't remember that... Not that it hasn't I just didn't think it had gone there yet.



I always liked the way this was done on Stargate SG-1.

The "covalence signal" they send in one episode of ST:NG, solving the plot, still almost makes me cry.

But the BEST part of SG-1 was from early on in the show. Can't remember the exact words but it was something along the lines of...

Sargent: It will take us 12 hours to fix.

General: You have 6

Sargent: It doesn't work that way, sir.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Thats why he is chief engineer. /nod The ability to bs and bluff your way out of a tight spot is intrinsic to the role of mechanic.

Well, it works for Montgomery Scott.

[Knaight]

One of the classic Star Trek ones that hasn't been mentioned yet is the "de-evolution" episode, where the crew caught a virus, and then gradually "de-evolved". Just about everything is wrong with that, and while I expect biology to get butchered even worse than physics does, that was just bad.

Then there was the entire movie Sunshine. Until it suddenly turns into a slasher at the end, it was mostly trying to be hard science fiction. You have spinning for artificial gravity, hydroponics, a scene where there's a catastrophic explosion because a section of the ship with a low albedo was directly facing the sun from too close, and a number of other things that are actually really well thought through. Unfortunately, the entire concept of it was that the sun was dying, so humans were going to detonate a nuclear weapon in it to restart the fusion process.

Yeah.

[Nerd-o-rama]

One of the classic Star Trek ones that hasn't been mentioned yet is the "de-evolution" episode, where the crew caught a virus, and then gradually "de-evolved". Just about everything is wrong with that, and while I expect biology to get butchered even worse than physics does, that was just bad.

That's Star Trek Voyager, specifically "Threshold". Believe me, it's just easier to say Star Trek Voyager in general - that was the worst of it, but by no means all of it.

[Douglas]

That's Star Trek Voyager, specifically "Threshold". Believe me, it's just easier to say Star Trek Voyager in general - that was the worst of it, but by no means all of it.
No, it's definitely TNG. The day is saved on the Enterprise by Picard and Data returning to find everyone de-evolved, Picard starts turning monkey-like, and in the end it's up to Data to cure everyone with a serum derived from his pet cat, whose pregnancy somehow protected her kittens (who she gave birth to during the incident) from the virus. I remember it all quite clearly.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yeah, the Voyager thing was hyper-evolution. Just as stupid, but going the other way.

[BannedInSchool]

Yeah, the Voyager thing was hyper-evolution. Just as stupid, but going the other way.

I'd have to say it was more stupid.

[Scowling Dragon]

At least monkies have SOMETHING to do with evolution.

Turning into salemanders because your ship goes faster then the speed of light-now thats something only Voyager could do.

[BannedInSchool]

Turning into salemanders because your ship goes faster then the speed of light-now thats something only Voyager could do.
I'm sure you just misspoke there, but it wasn't just FTL (warp anything is FTL). It was infinitely fast at Warp 10 which provoked them into individually "evolving" into the future of humanity immediately.

[Scowling Dragon]

I'm sure you just misspoke there, but it wasn't just FTL (warp anything is FTL). It was infinitely fast at Warp 10 which provoked them into individually "evolving" into the future of humanity immediately.

Right Im sorry, my brain refused to believe that thats what they where doing.

[Traab]

I'm sure you just misspoke there, but it wasn't just FTL (warp anything is FTL). It was infinitely fast at Warp 10 which provoked them into individually "evolving" into the future of humanity immediately.

Which makes perfect sense because of COURSE the human race is heading in the direction of salamanderization. I mean, who could doubt that turning into a 5 foot salamander is by far the pinnacle of evolution. They could have done so much with that episode to show the dangers.

As an example, they are exposed to literally everything while they are everywhere at once. Thus creating a sort of super plague that is only partially offset by also being exposed to every immunity and treatment and whatever other random crap exists everywhere in reality at once. Then the doctor has to find a way to isolate the original bits and pieces from the rapidly transmogrifying tom paris and perhaps use the transporters to reassemble him properly through the records left in the pattern buffers. There, tons of meaningless technobabble, none of the stupidity of salamanderization and kate mulgrews first sex scene being while she isnt human anymore. (Hey she may have been a somewhat older lady in that series, she was still fairly attractive.)

[Reddish Mage]

That was terribad.

What's even worse and takes the cake of all technobabble ever is Flash needing to cross Capt Cold and Heatwave's absolute cold and absolute hot shooting guns' streams to neutralize them both. Anyone who looks up what absolute hot actually is will see why this is the dumbest technobabble ever.

What? How can you debate this most straightforward application of this thread's fundamental principle? -

They had an absolute cold gun, so they reversed the polarity and so got an absolute heat gun.

I mean, that's just obvious :smallcool:

[Ronnoc]

You can't. The definition of a neutron is a subatomic particle that lacks a polarity/charge.

This statement makes no sense. Polarization in neutrons has nothing to do with charge it's a measurement of the orientation of spin state. As spin 1/2 particles neutrons can only exist in either an aligned or anti-aligned state with an external field. When we deal with a neutron flux from a source we measure the flux by masuring the asymmetry between neutrons in the up or down states P=(N+-N-)/(N+-N-). You can effectively flip the polarity of a neutron flux by passing it through a solenoid with a rotating RF field.

Sorry for the rant.

[golentan]

The Flash in general is just... Terribad. You fail science forever level terribad.

[Scowling Dragon]

The Flash in general is just... Terribad. You fail science forever level terribad.

Light yourself in fire, and doze yourself in liquid nitrogen and you will be fine. As long as you do both at the same time.

That was a scene to last the ages.

[Darth Tom]

Totally with you on the Star Trek stuff. TOS was endearingly silly, in that the science was more of an excuse for plot than an attempt to be serious. If anything, I feel TOS has a more cosmic horror feel than sci-fi: it's all about people going mad in space, mad with the power of technologies, or unimaginably ancient and powerful beings that mess with us because we poked them first.

The later series became increasingly "serious" which the writers seemed to think meant stupid non-explanations. Voyager was best summed up by that picture of Paris saying "hey! This week it's my turn to discover a new elementary particle that will solve all our problems and never be mentioned again!"

As an aside, back in about 2011/12 I set out to create a Trek fan webcomic, telling the story of another ship elsewhere in the Federation. I wanted to ensure that every detail ever brought up in canon Trek could be explained if necessary, so I watched every episode... Along the way I learned that "canon Trek" is pretty much limited to TNG season 1, but that's a whole other story. It was an interesting exercise in world-editing, but by the time I had enough material to actually create anything (late 2015), my "editor" (friend who checks things for awfulness) suggested writing it as original fiction instead.

[rooster707]

The Flash in general is just... Terribad. You fail science forever level terribad.

My favorite bit, personally, was when the Arrow people tracked Boomerang Dude (I think) to Central City because they found iron oxide on his boomerang, and Central City had 'high concentrations' of... rust.

What. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlatWhat)

[Traab]

My favorite bit, personally, was when the Arrow people tracked Boomerang Dude (I think) to Central City because they found iron oxide on his boomerang, and Central City had 'high concentrations' of... rust.

What. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlatWhat)

At least shows like bones or ncis try to pretend there is not only a measurable difference in content of iron oxides and other such debris found in peoples shoes, they also manage to pretend there is a database somewhere that can tell them exactly what town has that exact ratio. They dont just say, "There is rust in these shoes, central city is rusty, LETS GO THERE!" Its fridge logic yeah, but its fridge logic you can accept for the benefit of enjoying the story.

[Rogar Demonblud]

To be fair, a lot of those databases do exist. They aren't as detailed as the shows pretend, but thanks to the EPA and to Forensics grad students who have to do something for their thesis, they exist.

[Reddish Mage]

I did get struck by the time in Arrow that Flash used warfarin (rat poison) to cure Ollie of poison that this could conceivably work... That will be the only thing I will say that's good about CW science.

Btw "fridge logic" is term used to refer to the criticism of science in the forum and this thread in particular as in it's the logic that people watching a show suddenly think about when they take a break to get a beer from the fridge. And then drink the beer and forget about it.

It supposedly comes out of Hollywood writing circles as in Harry-Writer1: "that's too nonsensical to have Flash pull off" Writer2 "Harry just roll with this one, don't sweat the fridge logic."

[Traab]

I did get struck by the time in Arrow that Flash used warfarin (rat poison) to cure Ollie of poison that this could conceivably work... That will be the only thing I will say that's good about CW science.

Btw "fridge logic" is term used to refer to the criticism of science in the forum and this thread in particular as in it's the logic that people watching a show suddenly think about when they take a break to get a beer from the fridge. And then drink the beer and forget about it.

It supposedly comes out of Hollywood writing circles as in Harry-Writer1: "that's too nonsensical to have Flash pull off" Writer2 "Harry just roll with this one, don't sweat the fridge logic."

I use it as a term to describe logic that makes sense at the time, but then you stop and think about it and go, "Hey, wait a minute!!!"

[Rogar Demonblud]

Said thinking about it happening at a later time when you're standing in front of the fridge with the door open, which for some reason seems to be a rather productive time brain wise.

[BlueHerring]

My favorite part of the Flash is when they're scribbling down equations on boards, and some of them are seriously basic stuff, as far as physics is concerned. There's one particular scene that I remember where Wells has U=qV written down on the board in a corner.

And he's supposedly a brilliant physicist who can build a particle accelerator that spurred a metahuman surge.

Edit: It's not real technobabble, but it's kinda funny in the context of Flash's silly science.

[Knaight]

My favorite part of the Flash is when they're scribbling down equations on boards, and some of them are seriously basic stuff, as far as physics is concerned. There's one particular scene that I remember where Wells has U=qV written down on the board in a corner.

And he's supposedly a brilliant physicist who can build a particle accelerator that spurred a metahuman surge.

Some pretty basic equations pop up even when doing advanced stuff though - they get accompanied by all sorts of much more complicated ones, but you get things like basic energy summations cropping up all over the place.

[themaque]

Some pretty basic equations pop up even when doing advanced stuff though - they get accompanied by all sorts of much more complicated ones, but you get things like basic energy summations cropping up all over the place.

"It looks cool is the point. Besides who takes the time to actually read the MATH on these things anyways? "

Nerds AKA our general audience.

[Flickerdart]

I did get struck by the time in Arrow that Flash used warfarin (rat poison) to cure Ollie of poison that this could conceivably work... That will be the only thing I will say that's good about CW science.
To be fair, warfarin gets used every other week on House, so the writers of Arrow don't really get credit for introducing this into TV medicine.

[Traab]

To be fair, warfarin gets used every other week on House, so the writers of Arrow don't really get credit for introducing this into TV medicine.

Did the Flash at least blame it on lupus first?

[Flickerdart]

Did the Flash at least blame it on lupus first?

Don't be ridiculous, it's never lupus.

[Malimar]

Warfarin/Coumadin is primarily used as an anticoagulant in medicine. My mom was on it for awhile after a bad blood clot. This is the first I've heard of it being used as rat poison, too.

And for those of you complaining about "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow": even if neutrons don't have polarity, flows do. Nobody's reversing the polarity of any neutrons, they're reversing the polarity of the flow of neutrons.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Warfarin/Coumadin is primarily used as an anticoagulant in medicine. My mom was on it for awhile after a bad blood clot. This is the first I've heard of it being used as rat poison, too.

And for those of you complaining about "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow": even if neutrons don't have polarity, flows do. Nobody's reversing the polarity of any neutrons, they're reversing the polarity of the flow of neutrons.

Wouldn't flows, being vectors, have a direction, not a polarity?

[Malimar]

Wouldn't flows, being vectors, have a direction, not a polarity?

Strictly speaking, if you're using "polarity" to refer exclusively to positive/negative charges, you may be correct. But speaking more loosely, I think treating "upstream/downstream" as poles isn't entirely outside the realm of legitimacy. (Checking dictionary definitions for "polarity", it seems some allow for my usage, others don't, and some are vague or unclear.)

EDIT: It occurred to me as I tried to sleep yesterday that electron flows (i.e., electricity) have a polarity that doesn't have anything to do with the polarity of the electrons themselves. Indeed, (if my vague recollection of high school science class is correct,) the "positive"/"negative" polarity of an electron flow is the opposite of what it should be if it had to do with the polarity of the electrons. You can easily reverse the polarity of an electron flow without having to turn electrons into positrons.

[Reddish Mage]

So anyone able to make sense of RWBY's Pyrrha describing her Magneto-metal TK abilities as "polarity." Ruby's response seems the only sensible interruption "WOW! So you can control poles!?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

So anyone able to make sense of RWBY's Pyrrha describing her Magneto-metal TK abilities as "polarity." Ruby's response seems the only sensible interruption "WOW! So you can control poles!?"

I haven't watched the show, but you can polarize, i.e. create magnetic poles in, a metal object, it's just that normally in English most people would say magnetize. It's not a technically impossible term, just not the most common one for what she presumably does.

Of course, I'm quite sure RWBY is science-fantasy anyway. Or plain old fantasy with some futuristic technology mixed in.

[ChillerInstinct]

Also, every mention of 'hacking' on network TV. I believe there's an iconic scene on NCIS where two characters join forces to out-hack a hacker by sharing a keyboard.

NCIS has some of the most laughable depictions of anything related to computers on modern TV, really. There was one episode where somebody had coded in the day's Macguffin into the killscreen of an MMORPG, triggered by getting the highscore. Yes, really.

Really I almost always find it cute when network TV tries to delve into the gaming world. They try to mash up the sensibilities of the early 80s arcade machines (which is the sum of what a lot of their target audience experienced) and the modern day, and the result is almost always amusing.

Ooh, and Bones had that one case where somebody carved a computer virus into the bones of the victim of the week which shut down the computer that scanned them. Because that is a thing that you can do, apparently.

[Douglas]

NCIS has some of the most laughable depictions of anything related to computers on modern TV, really. There was one episode where somebody had coded in the day's Macguffin into the killscreen of an MMORPG, triggered by getting the highscore. Yes, really.
Since when do MMORPGs have "high scores"?:smallconfused: That concept is for games with defined end points, which I don't recall ever hearing that an MMORPG had.

[The Glyphstone]

Since when do MMORPGs have "high scores"?:smallconfused: That concept is for games with defined end points, which I don't recall ever hearing that an MMORPG had.

I think that was the point. They got that hilariously wrong like everything else they do.

[Douglas]

Ooh, and Bones had that one case where somebody carved a computer virus into the bones of the victim of the week which shut down the computer that scanned them. Because that is a thing that you can do, apparently.
It's theoretically possible, but would require specific types of bugs in the scanning software and extremely precise detailed carving by someone who knows the exact details about the bug in question.

[Aotrs Commander]

It's theoretically possible, but would require specific types of bugs in the scanning software and extremely precise detailed carving by someone who knows the exact details about the bug in question.

And a phenominally good scanner. 3D scanners aren't nearly as good as people in the street would like to believe. Though a propermedical scanner might be up to that level of detail.

(3D scanning and 3D printing fall into two categories to the average person in the street, in my own epxerience. People who cannot believe such technology exists at all and are wowed by it and people who think that practical Star Trek replicators are only a couple of years away1.)



13D printing guns, for example, which CSI did an episode on. They were remarkably generous in letting it be fired even once before it exploded. (In reality, you'd STILL have to machine out the barrel anyway: 3D printing in metal is actually less accurate than in plastic.)

[rooster707]

I think that was the point. They got that hilariously wrong like everything else they do.

On TV, all video games are about either getting the high score, or getting to the next level.

[themaque]

And a phenominally good scanner. 3D scanners aren't nearly as good as people in the street would like to believe. Though a propermedical scanner might be up to that level of detail.

13D printing guns, for example, which CSI did an episode on. They were remarkably generous in letting it be fired even once before it exploded. (In reality, you'd STILL have to machine out the barrel anyway: 3D printing in metal is actually less accurate than in plastic.)

I was just reading the other day about some kid getting in trouble for 3D scanning guns in China.

But you forget, on BONES even if the original picture isn't that clear, when they run it through the enhancing software it's bound to start causing trouble!

What would they do without the enhancement machine?!?

EDIT: Yes, The joke there is that enhancement, as seen on TV, is laughably impossible.

[Aotrs Commander]

I was just reading the other day about some kid getting in trouble for 3D scanning guns in China.

Well, yeah. Just 'cos it won't necessarily work as intended doesn't mean it isn't dangerous (and likely to explode in your face).

The other danger of course is that if it looks like a real gun and people think its a real gun... You might end up getting shot by a real gun.

Media panic over 3D printed firearms is more smoke than fire, with current technology (a bit like the TV "enchancement" stuff...!) (3D printed knives, on the other hand, are something that's something to be a bit more concerned about, since they don't have moving parts and are comparitively easy to design. Heck, while I couldn't CAD up a gun without specifications, doing a sharp implement is frack-easy.)

[Scowling Dragon]

You would still need to sharpen the 3D printed knife to have a real slicing effect at which point just grab a stick and sharpen it.

Also: From Star Treck into darkness: Using cold fusion to stop a volcano.

[Reddish Mage]

You would still need to sharpen the 3D printed knife to have a real slicing effect at which point just grab a stick and sharpen it.

Also: From Star Treck into darkness: Using cold fusion to stop a volcano.

I understand you can create a pretty sharp knife from the materials used by a 3D printer...of course you can do so with...you know the materials themselves with a little know-how and in most countries you can just...you know...pick up a knife in a store. In America, at least, rather than going through all the trouble of getting a 3D printed gun to actually work...you can just go to a store without to much trouble and buy an actual gun (also available online for those that don't want to take the trouble of actually standing up!).

I think the story of 3D printers printing dangerous objects is a product of journalists thinking like the lazy sci-fi (and sci-fantasy) writers we are talking about here. "You know what could really make for a scary story, 3D printers making dangerous weapons available in mass quantities to everybody!"


I forgot about that! Cold fusion can stop a volcano! Because you know its cold, obviously!

[Scowling Dragon]

Well there are plenty of laws against just buying a gun in the USA at least. Even Texas has laws against this sort of thing, it just doesn't have a waiting period.

Also shows to take computer magic and ramp it up to a Million:

CSI: CYBER

Thats right a show entirely about the Technobabble.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzMwku95lRE

[Reddish Mage]

Ok, when a show like CSI, a ostensably about science (it's in the name), completely ignores the real science and technology, replaces it with instantly working magic that is 100% accurate, and justifies it with technobabble, we know we have a problem.

It's always the same thing, technology is represented as being able to fix any problem immediately through spur-of-the-moment creativity (with a fix that may-or-may-not ever be repeated despite having infinite uses). It's basically just Deus-ex-Machina.

Come to think about it, I think I just insulted an incredible institution that works through formulas that take years and even generations to develop through collaboration, hard-work and energy, that has always been frank about not always working the way it's intended and sometimes having unpredictable, even occasionally castatrophic effects to all involved and society-at-large by comparing it to technobabble.

Sorry...magic.

[The Glyphstone]

CSI stands for Crime Scene Investigation. There's no science in the name, sadly.

[BlueHerring]

I understand you can create a pretty sharp knife from the materials used by a 3D printer...of course you can do so with...you know the materials themselves with a little know-how and in most countries you can just...you know...pick up a knife in a store. In America, at least, rather than going through all the trouble of getting a 3D printed gun to actually work...you can just go to a store without to much trouble and buy an actual gun (also available online for those that don't want to take the trouble of actually standing up!).

I think the story of 3D printers printing dangerous objects is a product of journalists thinking like the lazy sci-fi (and sci-fantasy) writers we are talking about here. "You know what could really make for a scary story, 3D printers making dangerous weapons available in mass quantities to everybody!"

Also, a 3D printer is like 300-500 dollars. You can buy a lot of knives, and even good quality ones for that much cash. By the time you reach the break-even point for printing knives, you've already bought a lot of them.

[Reddish Mage]

CSI stands for Crime Scene Investigation. There's no science in the name, sadly.

Darn it! I guess that means it's perfectly acceptable then for them to be investigating crime scenes through technobabble rather than science.

Carry on.

[Aotrs Commander]

Also shows to take computer magic and ramp it up to a Million:

CSI: CYBER

Thats right a show entirely about the Technobabble.

The episode of CSI Vegas where they set-up that series was the only time in the entire run of either of first three entire CSI series I was outright laughing AT the show not with it.

I don't intend to touch that show with a barge-pole.

CSI (Vegas/Miami/NY) WAS about the science (albiet with some artistic license). This... REALLY isn't. (And given the CSI effect in actual legal proceedings, may actually be A Bad Thing.)




You would still need to sharpen the 3D printed knife to have a real slicing effect at which point just grab a stick and sharpen it.

True, but any idiot can do that.


I understand you can create a pretty sharp knife from the materials used by a 3D printer...of course you can do so with...you know the materials themselves with a little know-how and in most countries you can just...you know...pick up a knife in a store. In America, at least, rather than going through all the trouble of getting a 3D printed gun to actually work...you can just go to a store without to much trouble and buy an actual gun (also available online for those that don't want to take the trouble of actually standing up!).

I think the story of 3D printers printing dangerous objects is a product of journalists thinking like the lazy sci-fi (and sci-fantasy) writers we are talking about here. "You know what could really make for a scary story, 3D printers making dangerous weapons available in mass quantities to everybody!"

But basically, this, in practise.


Also, a 3D printer is like 300-500 dollars. You can buy a lot of knives, and even good quality ones for that much cash. By the time you reach the break-even point for printing knives, you've already bought a lot of them.

If you intend to make knives in plastic (on fairly low res models.)

A 3D printer capable of decent resultion and/or sensibly cost materials is about three or four times that and one capable of printing in METAL is going to be in one to two digit thousands.

(3D printing is, like, my Earth-side day job.)

[Scowling Dragon]

Oh no insult to 3D printing. I think we are like 10 years away from its iphone stage (When the tech goes from gimmick to utterly dominating our lives).

Just saying that 3D printed Knives are not a danger to anybody.

[Vereshti]

There's a hilarious joke SCP parodying such technobabble: http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1417-j. It's an anomalous sentient meteorite that gets bored of actual realistic scientific examination and has to be entertained with movie SCIENCE! The containment breach log is the best part.

[BlueHerring]

True, but any idiot can do that.With regards to making knives from sticks, that's not actually that easy. Making a spear is trivially easy, but making a knife (with an edge and some semblance of a point) isn't nearly as straightforward, and you'd still need to sharpen it ridiculously often. Wood is seriously bad at holding an edge. I've shaved branches down into spears before, but getting them to make a knife that can cut through anything more than thread or paper is not easy.

You could chip flakes from rocks and insert those for a semblance of an edge, but that isn't much better.


If you intend to make knives in plastic (on fairly low res models.)

A 3D printer capable of decent resultion and/or sensibly cost materials is about three or four times that and one capable of printing in METAL is going to be in one to two digit thousands.

(3D printing is, like, my Earth-side day job.)That's actually kinda interesting. And a whole lot of knives. Hell, you could make a whole set of custom knives for that much cash.

[Aotrs Commander]

With regards to making knives from sticks, that's not actually that easy. Making a spear is trivially easy, but making a knife (with an edge and some semblance of a point) isn't nearly as straightforward, and you'd still need to sharpen it ridiculously often. Wood is seriously bad at holding an edge. I've shaved branches down into spears before, but getting them to make a knife that can cut through anything more than thread or paper is not easy.

You could chip flakes from rocks and insert those for a semblance of an edge, but that isn't much better.

Clarification: I meant "any idiot can manage to sharpen a 3D printed knife" (proviso: person presumed enough to know about knives that they want to use them a weapon to stab people and thus that they will need to sharpen it. If they don't, all to the good, since they are less likely to kill someone in their incompetance.)


That's actually kinda interesting. And a whole lot of knives. Hell, you could make a whole set of custom knives for that much cash.

A comparision for the sake of comparison. Shapeways commercial print house cheapest plastic is $1.5 +$0.5 per cm3. Cost to print steel is $6 + $5 per cm3. You're probably looking at $100 before you start to have it printed at Shapeways (assuming they even do it...) for a very small blade (the handle alone would cost more, probably), for somethign you;d then have to sharpen and would be mechanically inferior to a proper blade (becaise it's 3D printed, not forged).

I know that when I last looked, the cost for the printer that does the former was in the "nowhere that sells it actually tells you unless you ask for a quote" which suggests in the 10k-sort of range; no idea what an actual metal 3D printer would set you back but it makes me shiver just contemplating it.

(Our home PLA extrusion printer, which is on average quality to 0.1mm res and comparable to the aforementioned commerical plastic laser-sintering in terms of detail quality, would have been about $1000-2000 or something.)

[Reddish Mage]

So, while we apparently have at least one professional 3D printer user on the thread. Can someone explain to me the infinite capabilities of this technology? I guess the ability to basically make any sort of object I want out of plastic, or metal, would be super, but I don't think the point I can have one of these things making patio furniture for my apartment is anytime soon.

Maybe I could get a desktop organizer, some bookshelf stands, get something cable of letting my Apple Pencil be carried with me...that sort of simple stuff. But I guess we are still years and a popular Apple Store away from those mass popular cheap templates being available....

In the meantime, how useful is this stuff really and am I underselling the usefulness of this to consumers (I understand professionals could use 3D printing or the concept to basically, make anything cheaper faster and more customized...and that's not just 3D printers but the general notion of getting more dynamic cutters and part making).

[Kislath]

3-D printing is going to change the world. It might even destroy it.

Moving on...

Voyager lost me at "warp particles." I was willing to give the show a chance, but that was more than I could take.

Enterprise bugged me with one thing--- They didn't have shields, so they "polarized" the hull when there was trouble. LOL

I once asked Ethan Phillips what Neelix was going to do when his transplanted Ocampan lung wore out in about 2 years. He visibly panicked.

[Aotrs Commander]

So, while we apparently have at least one professional 3D printer user on the thread. Can someone explain to me the infinite capabilities of this technology? I guess the ability to basically make any sort of object I want out of plastic, or metal, would be super, but I don't think the point I can have one of these things making patio furniture for my apartment is anytime soon.

Maybe I could get a desktop organizer, some bookshelf stands, get something cable of letting my Apple Pencil be carried with me...that sort of simple stuff. But I guess we are still years and a popular Apple Store away from those mass popular cheap templates being available....

In the meantime, how useful is this stuff really and am I underselling the usefulness of this to consumers (I understand professionals could use 3D printing or the concept to basically, make anything cheaper faster and more customized...and that's not just 3D printers but the general notion of getting more dynamic cutters and part making).

"Slightly" because I'm about to drop a load of real technobabble of my own...

What can you do with a 3D Printer when used at the practical level, as opposed to just "look , I printed a thing?"

The first limitation is you have to learn to CAD model, if you really want to do it in anger. There are free packages out there, so the basic minimum cost is the time you have to spend doing it. There are plenty of sites that you can download free stuff from, but obviosuly that is a limitation - especiall since you can have to tweak a model to a specific type of printer's limitations. A handful of places, of which Shapeways is the the largest allow you to basically have a webstore at their site where other people can but prints of your models at cost plus a mark-up you put on it. (This is essential the aforementioned earth-side day-job.)

What are the overall limitations?

1) Size. Commerical print houses tend to charge by volume so big things get VERY expensive very fast (often even if they are hollow); the home printer is limited by its surface area - and we have found that if you print anything much more than about 15cm or so, it tends to distort when the plastic cools and shrinks. You will not be printing patio furnature unless you buy your own printer and print it in small sections.

2) Minimum wall thickness. I.e. what thickness of feature it can print without breaking. This varies by exactly what printer you have. Commercial White Strong Flexible (technically nylon 12, I believe) can't go below about 1mm wall thickness; though as while WSF is a better material than metal or plastic for models ina lot of ways, much smaller than that starts to become very fragile anyway. The Rep 2 can do better in some ways, but in general the 1mm is good for the aformentioned reasons. Now, there are printers capable of doing even better - my Dad toured a model railway convention and bought 72nd scale chap where the printer has managed to print a hoop being carried that is on the order of 0.3/0.4mm. (We ourselves have not had chance to try getting people to run our models on any of the newer home printers yet.) But again, the limitations becomes how easily the model is breakable at this sort of size.

3) Surface detail. There comes a point where you just can't visibly see details. This can work to your advantage (none of the proceedign models have any actual curved srufaces, it's all faceted) but it also means that, in my experience, anything less than about 0.3mm surface detail size will be too small.


A home 3D printer becomes a tool like any other - aside from wargames stuff, we have used it for DIY for bits for the shelves, the caravan, replacing the missing caps on firedoors, hosepipe screws etc etc. We've had the Rep 2 for about two-three years now and at this point we've probably paid for it in the equvilent of stuff long since. (I say "probably," since we actually got it nearly given to us, as it happened.)


There are basically two types of practical 3D printing for the likes of thee and me at the moment. The first is commercial laser-sintering, which basically uses a laser on a powder to melt the powder into layers. You probably won't ever see this sort in your home, since fine powders are explosive, though a lot of printers are working on making a laser (or even ordinary light) work on a liquid. The advantage of this sort material is it is self-supporting, which means you can build free-standing or even nested objects (though I've never tried the latter).

The other is the extrusion printer, as typifed by the sort of thing you currently get in the home (as with our Replicator 2). This is what I call a "tube of toothpaste" printer, which heats and squeeses PLA plastic (or ABS in some printers) out of a nozzle. As you can't print over open air, you need to have supports fo overhangs. The Repliactor, at any rate, will do up to 45º with an overhang, so for sci-fi you can, to some extent, design for print capability. This has the advantage that once you get past the prnter cost, material is dead cheap: we pay about £18 for a kilogram, which is basically 1000cm3. That will do you a lot of tanks or other stuff.

The quality of the prints between the two are depressingly about average - one is better in some areas, the other is better in others - though there ar some things you can't do on the home printer, because while they would print it, you;d never break the supports off without breaking the model.

The Rep 2 is a few years old now, though sadly Makerbot screwed up the later versions so while the Rep 2 was best on the market, the later ones are "don't touch with barge pole."



Right then - nowt like practial examples and I have LOTS of exampleas! First off, this is a 144th (10/12mm) scale Boxer command vehicle (about 55mm long) (which happens to be a pretty reasonable picture of the material). This is in Shapeway's (or the other place I use myself, generally) White Strong Flexible material.
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/AotrsShipyards/BoxerCommandWSF_zps13evfmwo.png
(The rear is actually a module, so I can do other versions of the Boxer, just like the real thing.)

This is a 12mm mini-me (complete with rocket launcher) min WSF, with a normal D20 for scale. This is about as small as you can go, due to the aforemention wall thickness limitations.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/AotrsCommander/MiniBleakbaneDice_zpsa6e5b890.jpg

Smae model again, painted, with a larger me at 72nd (25mm).
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/AotrsCommander/BleakbaneandminBlakebane_zps307e8ce2.jpg

The othe trick you can do with commerical prints is like on the Nomad freighters - the girders. All one piece no assembly.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/AotrsCommander/NomadWSF.jpg
http://images3.sw-cdn.net/product/picture/625x465_202881_200999_1459302974.jpg
Having to paint the INSIDE of the girders since I had to undercoat white because of the yellow, was, however, A Bit Of A Bugger...

Compoarison between WSF and Rep 2 prints. A Mark 3 and Mark 5 Chieftain (which are more or less identical, especially from this angle.)
Repliactor 2
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/AotrsShipyards/Chieftain%20Mk%203%20Rep2_zpshs7pr0hw.png

WSF
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/AotrsShipyards/Chieftain%20Mk%205%20WSF_zpso3snuzxa.png

A more elaborate(and much large!) Rep 2 model, painted. The main gun barrel elevates and depresses, and as implied by the two in the background, you can pop them out and replace them. The little drones are WSF, though I actually ould print them as two halves on the Replicator if I wanted to. Notice how the little turrets (with the red barrels - and yes, they're seperate pieces) have their gun barrels at 45º? This means they can be printed without any support material.
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/AotrsShipyards/Onager%20Rep2%20painted_zpsgeio5eah.png

Finally, then the Xyriat Hegemony fleet, all of which were done on the home 3D printer as left/right halves stuck together, which allows you two levels of contraint - i.e. doing it that way you can have overhangs of 45º from the centreline and stillhave no support material. (Except the one with the geodasic domes, I had to to each dome as a two-part peice to slot them in).
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/AotrsShipyards/Xyriat%20Hegemony%20Fleet_zpsqxjhxrly.png

Feel free to browse through either of the photobucket accounts these model come from: one is my (more recent) Aotrshipyards professional account, the other is a more general once, so expect to see a lot of ponies in the photos as that is something I do for the amusement of ponythread.)

Shapeways itself might also be worth a browse, so you can see the sort of things other people do (which is vastly more than just the wargames models I do.

Does that answer your question enough?

(As you can tell, I can do this all day! These days, this is the sort of thing we spend all day at wargames conventions doing!)

[DoctorFaust]

So, while we apparently have at least one professional 3D printer user on the thread. Can someone explain to me the infinite capabilities of this technology? I guess the ability to basically make any sort of object I want out of plastic, or metal, would be super, but I don't think the point I can have one of these things making patio furniture for my apartment is anytime soon.

Maybe I could get a desktop organizer, some bookshelf stands, get something cable of letting my Apple Pencil be carried with me...that sort of simple stuff. But I guess we are still years and a popular Apple Store away from those mass popular cheap templates being available....

In the meantime, how useful is this stuff really and am I underselling the usefulness of this to consumers (I understand professionals could use 3D printing or the concept to basically, make anything cheaper faster and more customized...and that's not just 3D printers but the general notion of getting more dynamic cutters and part making).

I don't claim to be an expert in 3D Printing, but Tested has done a variety of videos on 3D printing that I found to be both educational and interesting, though I can't verify the accuracy of the things they say in them. This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTCIlO0oLP8) is a bit older, but it goes decently in-depth about the technology. There's also a number of videos showing the variety of projects that people have done using 3D printing, including things like prosthetic hands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXRWsMNaESk), food (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WWHpWgaq7I), props of (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g01qhIqPeGw) various kinds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz9_VwW7rbs), and model (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cJKLZg53qw) kits (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0U6LgmB0j4) (and the last video also briefly discusses using 3D printing in a more industrial capacity). They've also talked a lot about different home 3D printers.